Food manufacturers are continuously challenged to find ways to present an appetizing and authentic food product at minimized raw material costs. One area of particular endeavor has been the goal of producing liquid compositions including hydrophobic nutritional supplements and particularly hydrophobic vitamins.
One of the problems encountered by beverages manufacturers is commonly called “Ringing”. This term is used to illustrate the formation of a separate fat-soluble vitamin layer on the top of the liquid; unfortunately vitamin formulations have not solved this problem. One means of adding fat-soluble vitamins to beverages without ringing is to encapsulate the vitamins in liposomes. However, this is a costly process, and the concentration of active substance in the liposome tends to be low.
Another solution has been provided by EP 0 966 889 which pertains to modified polysaccharide matrix in which droplets of fat soluble vitamin having an average about 70 to 200 nanometers in diameter. The use of such matrix in beverages is disclosed.
However, this process implies chemical modification of the polysaccharide and also a precise determination of the vitamin droplets size.
As apparent from the art, the known processes are not cost efficient or involve chemically modified compounds, which are not well perceived by the consumers, and even with such compounds the used processes are still complex.
The emulsifying properties of “clean label” compounds have already been investigated in the art, for example in DE 199 43 188 A1. In this document, a fruit juice composition containing dietary fibers and buttermilk is disclosed. Buttermilk is the aqueous material released by the churning of milk-cream and is usually used in the food industry for its emulsifying properties due to its high protein content.
Dietary fibers are in this case used, after a specific treatment, due to its high water binding capacity.
EP 0 485 030 discloses a juice comprising optionally from 0.002 to about 1% aqueous and oil essence or other flavorant. In this application, the aqueous essence is a water-soluble component and the essence oil is the oily fraction. This juice contains citrus fibers and a residual portion of intrinsic essence oil that is exhibited during the concentration of said juice.
One problem with such process is that the addition of the finely divided citrus fiber should be conducted at low-shear and must not be followed by any further high shear operations prior to packing otherwise the beverage becomes too viscous or even gelled.
Thus, there is currently still a need of having high quality “clean-label” liquid compositions comprising hydrophobic vitamins.
The current invention provides such a product and process for preparing it.
Indeed, the inventors have surprisingly found that the hydrophobic vitamins can be included in aqueous liquid medium while being stabilized and protected (from oxidation) by citrus fiber.